A ruling in the Dutch courts means that foreigners heading to Amsterdam's famous marijuana cafés will soon will be banned from buying cannabis in a bid to end drug tourism to the Netherlands.
"Coffee shops" where small amounts of cannabis
have been legally bought and smoked, on or off the premises, since 1976,
have become a major industry and a popular tourist attraction in many
Dutch cities, especially the capital.
But the Dutch government has in recent years launched a major overhaul of the country's "gedoogbeleid" or tolerance policy on soft drugs in order to combat drug tourism, which has is associated with public rowdiness in border towns, such as Maastricht, that lie close to Belgium, France and Germany.
More
6 comments:
My friends from Spain went to Amsterdam where those "coffee shops" are located. They weren't there 10 minutes before someone mugged them of some of their money. While looking for a police to tell them, someone else came along and stole their leather jackets. It was some drug addicts. The place is a mess.
I spent a week there 2 years ago and it was a great place to vist.
That's a real shame no one will go there now. They just killed their tourist industry.
OK! Let's legalize marijuana! See how well it has worked out for the Dutch! Their actions, though, won't really help that much, if at all. Do they really believe that only "foreigners" get rowdy when they're using drugs? I'm not familiar with the geography of Amsterdam, but, generally, when easy access to legal drugs is taken from users, they get them illegally, thereby creating a market for illegal drugs and creating a criminal class of both buyers and sellers. If they (the rowdies) don't want to risk criminal penalties or by some miracle an illegal drug market doesn't spring up in the three "border towns," they are impacting with their ban, drug users will simply travel a little farther, thereby simply transferring the "public rowdiness" to other towns near enough for them to travel to.
The illegal drug trade successfully thrives in the Netherlands due to users are able to buy for less money since it's not taxed.
For more insight about liberal European drug policies look up "Needle Park" in Switzerland.
Anon 11:03 And your larger point is....???
Post a Comment